MANHATTAN - Frank Martin was not happy with his Kansas State basketball team Sunday afternoon.

Harold Bechard

Tuesday

Nov 18, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 18, 2008 at 5:00 PM

Martin expects better results tonight.

Despite his team's 2-0 start and 88-68 victory over Southeast Missouri State three days ago, Martin didn't mince any words during his post-game press conference.

Martin called his team's play, "selfish, lethargic and lackadaisical."

So you can probably imagine what practice has been like for the Wildcats leading up to today's 7 p.m. home game against Emporia State.

"I'll correct the problems in practice," Martin said. "You can be a cheerleader all you want on the sidelines, but that doesn't correct the problems. Problems are corrected in practice, not during the game, in practice."

The Wildcats jumped out to an 11-0 lead and stretched it to 31-6 with eight minutes remaining in the first half. But in the game's final 28 minutes, K-State was outscored by the undersized and overmatched Redhawks.

Rebounding was another problem. K-State held a 50-47 advantage in that area against a team that didn't have a player over 6-foot-7 and one that had just eight players in uniform.

"I told you that you would be able to see it on my face when we don't rebound well," Martin said. "It's pretty simple we just didn't rebound well today."

The Wildcats know they'll have to play better, and harder, in the future.

"Looking at the stats and the way we played in the second half, we really didn't play that well," said senior Darren Kent. "The rebounds were too close, the three point percentage was too good, and we really didn't get to their shooters.

"We look at it now and we didn't play that well. We need to fix some things in this upcoming week to get ready for our game on Wednesday."

Kent did produce a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds, while Fred Brown came off the bench and produced 21 points and six assists in 25 minutes. But Martin wants to see that from Brown on a regular basis, not just every now and then.

"Fred can make shots for us," Martin said. "When I said he reverted last week, it was because of the mistakes he made on the defensive end and the lackadaisical approach offensively. Today he made some shots.

"I'm happy he didn't shoot three air balls like he did in the last two games but at the same time his approach wasn't good. That is something that we need to change."

Jamar Samuels also came off the bench and had 16 points and eight rebounds in 25 minutes, All told, the reserves finished with 46 points and 20 rebounds.

"I guess that would be the one positive, that a lot of guys played," Martin said. "I don't know of anyone that played particularly well outside of about a three minute stretch. There was one point in the second half, I don't remember the score but for a three-minute stretch we decided to play the way we practice.

"Everyone guarded, shared the ball, and played hard as a unit. Outside of that I'll try not to be a phony, publicly or privately, it is hard to be positive after a performance like that."

Emporia State (1-0) opened its season Monday night in Portales, N.M., with an 87-55 victory over Eastern New Mexico. Jeremiah Box scored 28 points, which is the most for an ESU player in a season opener in six years.

The Hornets, who lost to Kansas, 103-58, last week in an exhibition game in Lawrence, buried 10 3-pointers in the first half to open up a 26-point lead at intermission.

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